Monday, October 31, 2011

Cooking Time

Before I went primal, I ate very little meat, and mostly carbs. i ate frozen, pre-packaged lunches by lean cuisine and the like. I was a chronic napper.
The first thing that overwhelmed me about the new eating style was the perish-ability of the food i was buying. I must say, due to poor planning, I have wasted alot of food (and money) but I am getting much better. In doing more planning, I have been cooking more often, and going to the store more often, and meal preparation now takes up alot of my free time. the bonus... I actually like it.
Remember when your grandmother would be in the kitchen half the day cooking on the weekend? I always wondered why she was always in there. She was making food from scratch! she didn't have anything to "nuke" for my grandfather.
There is a whole culture and ritual that I am now assimilating to. Musing at what i want to eat, checking out recipes online, stopping at a local store, asking my family who is going to be home, timing the meal so it's hot when most people are home, planning my lunch for the next day... a lot of time and effort go into cooking.
I used to go to the store once a week and get 5 frozen lunches, 3 boxes of cereal and a couple of gallons of nonfat milk. i literally don't eat any of that anymore. for around 10 years I've had oatmeal almost every morning of my life. Now it's eggs.
Ans speaking of eggs.... i eat about 2 dozen a week by myself. its the most portable, easy, no-fuss fatty protein source. love it.

I'm not sure why i love cooking now, after avoiding it most of my life before i was primal. Maybe it's because I wasn't doing anything productive in the free time i had if i wasn't cooking.
I like that my dad has become involved, too. Around 5 o'clock one of us calls the other and asks what there plan for dinner is. sometimes he has it all planned out. other times we both had plans and grumble over who's going to use the stove first, or how we had already thawed our meat so the other is too late!
I enjoy looking at my groceries as they convey towards the register... all different colors of veggies, fruits, nuts and meat. bottles of spices and coconut oil. I'm proud at my new competence in the kitchen, and very pleased to watch my boyfriend go back for second and third portions. i love food.

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